It was a Weasley Sort of Day
by The Blue Heron
Summary: If you think about it, the Weasley twins rarely show up in the movies, or at least not for very long periods of time. Here is a story about someone who could have known them, and found out that there was more to them than just fun and games.


**So, I was having a sort of Harry Potter marathon over the past couple days, and last night (or this morning, rather, since it ended at around 1:45 am), I finished watching The Order of the Phoenix. An idea for one of the scenes popped into my mind, and this is what came out of it. Enjoy! :) **

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**It was a Weasley Sort of Day**

Back and forth, back and forth, the pendulum swung. It was OWLs testing day, a day for which I had long prepared. I had already taken it, but Umbridge insisted that my highly above average scores must mean that I had cheated. McGonagall had barely been able to arrange it so that I could take it again instead of being expelled. Always the academic, and further motivated by my determination to prove Umbridge wrong, I had spent long hours studying and studying. That woman had the skill to suck the life out of anything. She would have made a great Dementor.

I had one thing to thank her for, though. That one thing was my friendship with Fred and George. If not for her, I would have studied all my years at Hogwarts away without a thought. I remember the first time I met the Weasley twins. It was our second year at Hogwarts and the first day of class. I found myself seated next to one of them, who I later found to be Fred, with the other, George, in the row across on the other side of me.

"I'm Fred, and this here is George," Fred had said.

"I'm Lynn," I answered.

"Are you always this studious, Lynn?" he asked me.

"Oh, yes," I had replied.

After that, I always found myself being the one to help them with their projects or scrolls or whatever else needed doing. In return, they had me help them with their various experiments, most of which they probably shouldn't have been doing. I didn't mind it a bit. It was the start of a great friendship. Somehow I managed to organize my time so that I could study at night and spend most of my time with them during the day. It was great. I had never had so much fun. The twins were such teases. I swear, they were the reason that I developed any sense of humor at all.

There was more to it than just fun and games, though. I went to every single Quidditch game to support them. I know it doesn't sound like much; everyone went to every single Quidditch game. But when I went it actually mattered. I would watch Fred and George play, and they would know that I was there for them. I cheered when they played fantastically and commiserated with them when the game didn't turn out so well.

After one particularly good game against Slytherin, Fred ran up to me and picked me up and twirled me around.

"We did it, Lynn!"

I stored it away among my fondest memories.

Life was so perfect. But then something went wrong, as was bound to happen. At least with me, it was. Whenever something goes right, something else seems to catch up eventually and ruin the whole thing.

It was that ball. That blasted ball for the Triwizard Championships. I didn't want to go. I hated dancing. I had absolutely no coordination at all, and I don't like being in crowds of people. Even spending all that time with the twins didn't make me into a party girl. So when Fred asked me to go to the dance with him, and I answered him with a surprised "no." Everything went downhill from there.

That was the end of our friendship for that year. Fred started avoiding me, and George followed suit, though more out of loyalty to his brother than anything else, or so it seemed to me. Nothing was obviously wrong, and both appeared as cheerful and rebellious as ever. The only difference was that I wasn't with them, a fact of which I'm not sure many people noticed. Except for their sister, Ginny, whom I'd always gotten along with.

"What happened?" she asked me one day.

"I don't know," I answered helplessly.

It wasn't completely true. I did have a guess, which Ginny consequently confirmed.

"He liked you, you know," she said. "He liked you a lot."

"What?" A feeling of dread crept over me.

"Fred. George told me, even though Fred told him not to."

I was stupid. So incredibly stupid. I cried myself to sleep that night. And the night after that. And the night after that. I also threw myself into my schoolwork. It was the only thing that could keep me from thinking about him. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't think of any way to repair our broken friendship. I went back to talking to myself a lot, a habit about which the twins, Fred in particular, had teased me mercilessly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," I would say to no one in particular, except that it was meant for Fred. The other students would look at me strangely and avoided me even more than they had before. I was the nerd again.

I still went to the Quidditch games, only now I watched in silence, still quietly rooting for them, but too upset and confused to do anything else. After one game, when the twins were surrounded by cheering Gryffindors, Fred looked over their heads straight at me. He didn't smile, he didn't do anything. His gaze met mine for what seemed like a long while, but then he turned away, back to his screaming fans. I had no idea what he was thinking, and in that second, I wanted to know exactly that more than I ever had before.

Too soon, summer came, and I knew that I would miss the twins, especially Fred, even though I hadn't talked to either in a long while. The vacation seemed even longer than usual, and my gloomy mood confused my family. Finally the beginning of the new school year grew closer, and I looked forward to it with nervous anticipation. By the time I arrived at Platform 9 ¾, I was practically beside myself. I thought I caught a glimpse of red hair as I boarded the train, but no, that was their brother, Ron, who was a pleasant enough fellow, but rather obtuse when it came to Hermione. Poor girl. I wasn't sure whose situation was worse, hers or mine.

I didn't ever spot Fred, though. When the Dementors came, I wanted more than anything for him to be there. He would have made me laugh, and I wouldn't have been so afraid. I thought rather ironically that considering my constant depression, the Dementors wouldn't really have anything happy to suck out of me. The notion was not a particularly comforting one.

By the time we reached Hogwarts, I was a mess. No one noticed. Who notices the quiet girl? Even when I hung out with Fred and George, people rarely paid attention to me. Ron and Harry Potter's year was much nicer, at least among the Gryffindor's. Sure, the competition with Slytherin seemed to have doubled, but I sensed more of a camaraderie among the members of the Gryffindor House itself than existed in my year.

Of course, that's when I finally saw Fred. He was laughing and joking with George, as usual. He didn't see me, and to a certain extent, I was relieved. I wondered if we would have classes together again. I hoped that we did. Maybe I would have a chance to talk to him, repair what we used to have.

We did have the same classes, at least for some of them. Fred sat in the middle of the classroom, though, while I stayed at the back. He rarely acknowledged me, and I sank even more into my anti-social, unhappy state.

That's where Umbridge came in. Oh, she was there at the start of the school year, but as she put more and more laws into effect, the students became more and more outraged. Once Fred was talking to George about the absurdity of it all, and I had no doubt that they were coming up with another brilliant scheme to get kids out of class. He inadvertently turned to me standing behind them and said, "Don't you think it's ridiculous? Umbridge has banned all our inventions from the school! See, it says so right there!" and he pointed at the newest proclamation. Suddenly he seemed to realize who he was talking to, or not who he was talking to, but rather that he hadn't talked to me for a long while. He turned away before I could answer.

Then I heard about Dumbledore's Army. Luna was the one who told me about it. She was a rather scatter-brained young one who actually reminded me of myself, to a certain extent. I overheard some of her peers referring to her rather unkindly as Loony Lovegood. One day she came up to me and said in her dreamy way, "Have you heard about Dumbledore's Army? Harry started it. It's really quite good," before continuing on her way.

I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of that. Anything to thwart Umbridge sounded spectacular. My grades had already started slipping. I had stopped using studying as my defense mechanism to stop thinking about Fred when Umbridge had forbidden the use of wands or any magic at all. Instead I spent my time plotting her downfall, except then that would bring back memories and visions of how much better it would be if Fred were there to plot with me.

As I walked through the halls on that same day, a door appeared in the wall. Immediately I realized that it must be the Room of Requirement. How ingenious! I realized that this was probably the location of, what had Luna called it? Dumbledore's Army. So I went in. More students than I would have imagined were already inside, practicing away. Patronuses in the shapes of many different animals bounded around or flew in the air, and students performed various spells on each other.

Then Harry Potter, whom I of course recognized but had only briefly met, came over to greet me. As Luna said, he was in charge of the whole thing, the teacher.

"Would you like to learn how to use magic?" he asked.

"That would be great." It was the first time that I had smiled in a long time.

And so he set me to work. It was fantastic. I came back day after day to practice with the others. We all improved so much, even more than most of us had in our real classes, even before use of actual magic had been prohibited. Perhaps it was protestation against Umbridge's policies, and even Umbridge herself, that drove us. But I think there was more to it than that. We were preparing, fighting our own fight against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Occasionally I saw Fred and George. Occasionally I even practiced against them. George talked to me, and it seemed that we were getting back to our previous friendship, but Fred never spoke to me. Except for once, on the day that I produced my first complete Patronus. I had struggled and struggled and struggled to come up with even the rudimentary shield, much less a fully-formed one. On the day that I did, I used the happiest memory that I could come up with. It was a painful one, but a happy one. I thought of the day that Ginny told me that Fred liked me…a lot. The memory was bittersweet. Bitter, because it signified the end of our friendship, and sweet, because I found out that Fred felt the same about me as I did about him.

The fact that it worked surprised me. I had tried so hard and come up with nothing. The little I did come up with hadn't been even halfway strong enough, as Harry constantly told me, but it was hard to remember happiness when it seemed like I hadn't felt it in forever. Even my memories of constantly spending time with the twins had faded, until finally I dug up the bittersweet one. It was powerful, so powerful. I watched my Patronus float in the air, astonished, and to my surprise, practically everyone stopped what they were doing and came over to congratulate me. I was touched. I felt like I was a part of something, where people actually cared about me and how I did. I actually had friends. And then Fred walked by.

"It's a cat," he remarked.

"Yes, it is," I replied.

But it wasn't just any cat. It was a Siamese, the sort of cat that Fred had always compared me to. I had brought a picture of my sister holding her new pet, a Christmas present, with me to Hogwarts, and Fred caught sight of it. I had told him that it was an elegant creature, independent but still needing people. He had laughed and teased me, saying, "That's you, Lynn. Independent, but you still need us."

"I know," I'd said. "I couldn't survive without you guys."

I wondered if he remembered that moment, as I did.

And then, of course, Umbridge discovered our meeting place, and of course, we were all sentenced to writing lines. Not just any lines, though. She told us to write, "I must not tell lies," over and over and over again with a special quill. It was…painful. Very painful. The fact that she was forcing us to inflict pain on ourselves and there was nothing we could do about it made the punishment even worse. Bravely we tried not to make a sound, but sometimes a groan or a whimper of pain would escape, and Umbridge would smile with satisfaction. I glanced over at the twins to see them glaring resentfully at her with pained looks on their faces. I'd say that Fred looked more than just resentful. He looked almost angry.

Later as I was walking down the hall, I found Fred and George comforting a small boy who was crying and nursing his wounded hand.

"What's your name?" Fred asked.

I didn't catch his name, but apparently Fred did.

"You're hand's going to be fine, Michael," he said.

"Yeah, it's not as bad as it seems. See? It's fading already. You can hardly see ours anymore, and the pain stops after a while," George added.

"Yeah," Fred agreed.

I had stopped, and I noticed Harry standing opposite me. Fred suddenly seemed to realize that someone was standing behind him and looked up. He glanced down at the back of my hand, and I tried to hide the welts that were left. Again I saw the anger in his eyes that I thought I had seen before.

We were interrupted by the "Ahem, hem," that we had become accustomed to as Umbridge's way of signifying that something unpleasant was about to happen, which with her, meant always. I turned to find Umbridge smugly standing in the archway, watching us. Harry started towards her and the twins stood.

"As I told you once before, Mr. Potter, naughty children deserve to be punished," she said sweetly.

"You know, George, I always felt that our futures lay outside the world of academic achievement," Fred said as Umbridge returned to her study.

"Fred, I've been thinking exactly the same thing," George agreed.

Last year, I would have been in on whatever plan that they concocted. I would have been the third mastermind. But not now. All that was over. I missed it so badly, and I wondered if Fred thought it was any different. Sadly I realized that I would probably never know.

I should have known that they would put their plan into action during the OWLs exams.

Back and forth, back and forth, the pendulum swung as Umbridge observed us. I noticed her watching me in particular, probably looking for an excuse to take away my test. I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction. I was going to best this test, and she would be proven wrong.

Suddenly we heard a noise. It was almost a booming sound, but I don't think anyone could quite figure out what it was. The rows of students turned around and looked towards the source of the noise, which appeared to be coming from outside the huge doors that kept us inside. Umbridge's pleased smirk slipped, and after a moment's deliberation, she strode down determinedly down the aisle. A quiet chatter broke out amongst the test takers, and we heard another boom. This time it sounded even closer.

The doors opened with a creak, and Umbridge stepped outside and looked around. With a fizzing sound, a small firework floated in front of her face and flew past her into the room, separating into blue sparks which in turn went off in different directions and exploded.

I could only think of two people who could be responsible for that.

Umbridge stared after the sparks in astonishment and whipped back around only to be greeted by silence outside the door. I could imagine the look of confusion on her face.

Then the twins came. They made quite an entrance, riding in on their broomsticks and zooming over her head.

"All right, Professor!" Fred called.

The two flew over the desks, throwing the papers in the air and yelling triumphantly. I smiled. Umbridge couldn't do much about that. There was more, though. I knew that there was more to it.

They threw fireworks into the air, each separating and exploding in larger proportions than the first ones had. We started cheering as the room filled with various colors of light.

"Here you go!" he laughed and threw an even bigger firework into the air.

This time, though, some of the smaller explosions floated in front of the DA's faces and crackled into tiny displays. A few such explosions surrounded me and I laughed while the twins flew above us and high-fived each other in the air. Papers were strewn everywhere, and Umbridge looked horrified as a stray spark flew over her and barely missed her head.

Malfoy, whose name I had come to know through the unfortunate experience when Umbridge discovered DA, and his minions were not so lucky. One of his followers practically went cross-eyed and knocked one of the fireworks out of the way, only for it to chase the other. Another followed Malfoy and slammed into the wall when he ducked, leaving an imprint of his terrified face.

"Ready when you are!" George shouted to Fred, who threw the last firework into the air.

Its explosion was the largest one of all, and as I expected, there was more to it than that. The different bits arranged themselves into a giant dragon's head with glowing eyes and smoke coming from its nostrils. It fixed its gaze on Umbridge and swooped down with a snarl. It opened its jaws, and Umbridge ran to escape from its sharp teeth. As soon as she exited the room, its jaws snapped shut inches behind her and began the final explosions. They seemed almost alive, and attacked the plaques of Umbridge's dictator-like policies, causing them to crash down in a splendid display of broken glass. And so Umbridge's empire fell, while the woman herself stood among its ruins.

Again, that wasn't all. The twins flew over her head again, forcing her to duck, and shot into the sky, leaving a trail of yet more fireworks behind them. We rushed out of the room to follow them, cheering and clapping when we saw the unmistakable "W" that they left behind. Everyone was ecstatic. Even the choir teacher, a short fellow in glasses, punched the air in triumph and quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed.

I smiled and clapped as hard as I had during any Quidditch match. I was so proud of them. At the same time, though, I was going to miss them. There was no way that they could come back to Hogwarts now, even if they wanted to. It wouldn't be the same without them, but I wouldn't have given up ever knowing them for anything.

I couldn't stand the festivities any more. I turned to head back inside to pack up my books and head to my room. Who cared what Umbridge did after today? If she wanted to expel me, she would expel me. She knew I hadn't cheated, she just wanted me gone. She didn't want people to know too much. As she had said at the beginning of the year, "Progress, for the sake of progress, must be discouraged."

There was a rush of wind above me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a broom alight a little bit away from me. It was Fred.

"Want to come along?" he asked, and smiled the brilliant smile that I remembered.

"Oh, yes," I said, and I smiled back.

That was when I knew that everything would be all right.

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**I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! :)**


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